Trade policy: 20 people to meet at Labour conference

LONDON — This year’s Labour Party conference promises to be one of the most momentous.

Following a landslide victory at July’s general election, a Labour government is now in place — furnished with a new trade team. Labour conference offers a prime opportunity to learn — and influence — their views as they get to grips with a range of issues, from resetting the U.K.’s post-Brexit relationship with Europe to navigating the challenges posed by China.

In addition to new ministers, there will be plenty of familiar trade protagonists stalking the halls of the ACC Liverpool this year. Some faces may be less familiar, but no less important.

To help you find your way, we’ve compiled a ‘who’s who’ of the major trade players attending this year’s conference.

The rulemakers

Jonathan Reynolds 

As Labour’s first trade secretary in 14 years, Reynolds wants to make his mark. His officials in Whitehall’s grand Old Admiralty offices are busy preparing an industrial strategy to hand to No. 10 by the spring. That makes Reynolds and his team a top target for lobbyists in Liverpool as they gather ideas on which sectors to prioritize and, whisper it, maybe even fund.

A self-described “Christian socialist” who keeps a copy of the New Testament on his desk, Reynold is focusing the government’s energies on boosting growth sectors where the U.K. has a head start and comparative advantage over other nations. Hailing from Sunderland, Reynolds has been the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde in Greater Manchester since 2010.

Nick Thomas-Symonds

In opposition, Thomas-Symonds was Labour leader Keir Starmer’s mysterious “shadow minister without portfolio.” He kept a low profile, but Westminster insiders knew what he was really working on behind the scenes: Britain’s future relationship with the EU.

He’s now doing the same job from inside the Cabinet Office. With much of the new government’s trade agenda focused on changing how the U.K. does business with the Continent, Thomas-Symonds will in practice be just as important on trade as his secretary of state-level colleagues. He’s expected to lead the next round of Brexit talks kicking off in 2025.

The minister is widely regarded as having Starmer’s ear: a barrister like his boss and more recently a writer of history books, in 2020 he was plucked from relative obscurity by the Labour leader to be shadow home secretary. He was soon moved to lead the shadow international trade team, before his most recent, more focused role.

Douglas Alexander

Keep a close eye on Reynolds’ ambitious deputy, Douglas Alexander. Known as one of the biggest thinkers in Labour’s ranks, the party grandee had been tipped to replace David Lammy as foreign secretary after the election. The rumors might not have been borne out, but they were a testament to the high esteem in which Alexander is held by the Labour leadership.

With one of the broadest portfolios on the frontbench, Alexander is part of a select group of ministers of state who are invited to attend Cabinet. Tasked with making sure the Brexit trade deal and Windsor Framework are implemented, ensuring the U.K.’s economic security, restarting trade negotiations with India and Gulf states and developing a trade strategy that aligns with Labour’s new industrial strategy, he’ll be grappling with a series of thorny policy decisions this autumn.

Sarah Jones

Working across the business and energy departments, Jones is set to be a key player in shaping Labour’s industrial strategy. With a year under her belt as shadow minister for industry and decarbonization, Jones brings experience to her new role, where her focus will be driving green growth and clean energy investments.

After becoming an MP for Croydon in 2017, Jones was soon trusted with tough shadow briefs covering housing, policing and the fire service. Currently, she’s steering the government’s strategies on critical minerals, the future of U.K. steel production and the automotive sector, recently rejecting the idea of following the U.S.’s decisions on Chinese EVs.

Steve Reed

After a stint on the Labour front bench as shadow environment minister, Steve Reed is now in the driving seat at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where he has the unenviable task of fighting for British farmers in trade deals — farming and agriculture typically the last and most torturous parts of trade deals to be agreed. He recently promised “no more deals” like the controversial agreements signed with Australia and New Zealand under the Conservatives.

In that task Reed may well look for support from his more junior colleague, Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner, whom trade wonks regard as the most trade-friendly of the DEFRA team.

Liam Byrne

Byrne hardly needs an introduction: The Birmingham MP is feeling pretty pleased with himself after being re-elected chair of the Business and Trade Committee for a second term.

As keen watchers of the committee will know, Byrne takes no prisoners when interrogating witnesses — even when they are on the same team. So don’t expect him to go soft on his Labour colleagues. Just a word of warning: if you do bump into him at conference, don’t mention that note.

Finn McGoldrick & Jack Glynn

Reynolds will have two key aides by his side at conference: Finn McGoldrick and Jack Glynn. McGoldrick, who serves as Reynolds’ chief of staff and media adviser, has been a close political ally since July 2020, following several years in various roles within the Labour Party, including as “head of stakeholders.” Glynn, meanwhile, works as Reynolds’ special adviser on trade policy, having previously worked at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, which will serve his new role well as Labour looks to reset strained relations with the EU.

The brains trust

David Henig

No one knows trade quite like Henig, who has been a leading authority in the trade policy arena for decades. As well as acting as an ad hoc adviser to Labour’s top team while the party was in opposition, he was previously an assistant director in the former Department for International Trade, and, before that, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

He now leads the ECIPE think tank’s work on trade, working with politicians, businesses and NGOs. Henig is breathing easier these days, after claiming to have been “blacklisted” from briefings under the previous Tory government.

Bronwen Maddox

Maddox, together with her colleague Olivia O’Sullivan, have been making waves in the world of trade for years. Maddox is now chief executive of Chatham House, the respected London-based foreign policy institute, after a tenure at the Whitehall-focused Institute for Government, and is an authoritative voice on the geopolitical aspects of trade.

O’Sullivan, armed with ten years of international development and foreign policy expertise from her Whitehall days, heads up its UK in the World Programme, exploring a post-Brexit U.K.

Rosa Crawford 

Crawford leads international trade work at largest coalition of unions in Britain. At the Trades Union Congress she’s been a fierce advocate for how the government can deliver for workers, and hasn’t minced words when condemning the government’s pursuit of free-trade agreements with countries accused of human rights abuses.

She wants to change the way Labour negotiates trade deals altogether, urging the government to scrap corporate Investor-State Dispute Settlement courts and use multilateral fora to push for global trade rules that support development in the Global South, labor rights and the green transition.

Harry Quilter-Pinner

The Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) interim director Quilter-Pinner is fresh into the role at the Labour-friendly think tank after the group’s previous chiefs, Carys Roberts and Rachel Statham, were drafted into Keir Starmer’s No. 10.

Still, he’s no stranger to rubbing shoulders with policymakers and politicians, having previously headed up IPPR’s research, policy and influencing work in Westminster. He’ll be close by at IPPR’s event where they’ve bagged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to speak alongside a top Biden administration economic adviser.

Anand Menon

Not just any old think tank boss, as director of UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE), Menon has achieved the rare feat of bringing genuine academic expertise and depth to a wider Westminster audience.

While the future of UKICE is currently uncertain after it lost its main source of funding, as someone who can translate the technical world of EU-U.K. trade into plain English, Menon is likely to appear on your television screens — and possibly in the corridors of power — with even more regularity as Brexit talks warm up next year.

Voices of industry

Tom Bradshaw

Previous National Farmers Union president Minette Batters, now safely ensconced in the House of Lords, was a tough act to follow, but Tom Bradshaw has already made a promising start since his election in February. Six months in and one general election later, he’s been bending ministers’ ears on urgent topics ranging from Brexit border controls and biosecurity to plans for a veterinary agreement with the European Union.

Richard Ballantyne

2024 has been something of an annus horribilis for Britain’s ports. After splashing out £100 million on high spec inspection facilities in time for the rollout of Brexit border checks on EU imports this year, ports are now worried they could be left out of pocket. The fact is, some of these facilities are hardly being used and, if Labour delivers on its promises for a veterinary agreement with the EU, they may even become obsolete. As chief executive of the British Ports Association, Ballantyne is now seeking a guarantee from the new Labour government that they will be compensated if this happens.

Rain Newton-Smith

Appointed in the wake of the CBI’s sexual misconduct scandal, Newton-Smith had originally planned to take up a senior role at Barclays before stepping up as chief exec. She’d been working at the lobby group for almost a decade as its chief economist, but the opportunity presented itself and she was welcomed by former CBI President Mike Rake.

Insiders say Newton-Smith is a close friend to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, their bond dating back to their early days at the Bank of England, where Newton-Smith advised the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC). In her first year in charge at the CBI, Newton-Smith has been a fierce advocate for greening the U.K. economy, calling on ministers to prioritize net zero, establish an Office for Net Zero Delivery, and introduce tax cuts to boost green tech investments.

Shevaun Haviland

Haviland joined the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) in 2021 after serving as head of business relations in No. 10 and the Cabinet Office. Under her leadership, the BCC has been banging the drum for closer alignment with the EU in several reports that have pushed for deals on veterinary standards and the mutual recognition of professional qualification — ideas Labour has latched onto.

Marco Forgione

As the head of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, Marco Forgione has helped businesses, and ministers, navigate one of the most eventful and turbulent periods in U.K. trade history. When Brexit initially kicked in in 2021, causing U.K. exports to the EU to plummet, Forgione had the difficult task of helping British traders rebuild damaged relations with the EU. Four years later, the U.K. government is only mid-way through rolling out its own post-Brexit border regime, the Border Target Operating Model, which has been fraught with difficulties. Anything Labour can do to make life easier for traders in a post-Brexit world will be welcomed by Forgione and the institute’s members.

Stephen Phipson

Make UK’s chief executive Phipson, who describes himself as a “very personable and friendly guy,” has helmed the top manufacturing lobby group since 2017. He’s got a keen interest in the U.K.’s defense manufacturing after previously serving as a top civil servant on security exports and will be waiting to see if Labour makes any big announcements on its industrial strategy in Liverpool. Phipson has previously written that if the U.K. isn’t looking forwards on net zero, “we are simply going backwards.”

Gareth Stace

UK Steel’s chief Stace is a long way from the milk processing industry where he started his career. But his work as the Education Endowment Foundation’s head of climate and environment policy has fed directly into his efforts to green the steel industry and his advocacy for the U.K. to mirror the EU with its own Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Stace chairs the Manufacturers’ Climate Change Group — a lobby for carbon intensive industries from the cement, ceramics, glass, paper, steel and chemicals sectors. He’ll be lobbying Labour for a green transition that doesn’t leave Britain’s heavy industries behind.

Nicola Watkinson

Watkinson leads TheCityUK’s international team, where she’s lobbied on various issues that affect the U.K.’s financial and professional services industry.

Prior to joining, she worked in the Australian Trade and Investment Commission as general manager for the Americas, as well as a deputy consul general in New York. That experience has served her well on her diplomatic trips to the U.S., including recent trips to Miami and Houston, to build on the U.K.’s state-level agreements. Lately, she’s raised concerns about the extra-territorial effects of the Biden administration’s investment screening proposals on U.K. funds, while also advocating for services to be given pride of place in post-Brexit FTAs with the likes of Turkey.